North derby! Cure to end crisis?

30.08.2012, 14:28:25 Uhr

Marko Arnautovic (left) and Robert Tesche know that the derby between Werder and Hamburg is the match of the year.

The situation with Hamburg Sportverein could hardly be more heated. After the worst season in club history (15th place), the start of this season went bad as well. There was the embarrassing first round exit in the German DFB Cup, the embarrassing opening loss in the league and new acquisitions arrived either late (Jiracek, Badelj) or (until now) not at all (van der Vaart). Hamburg legend Uwe Seeler is not the only one sounding the alarm bells. There is very little to celebrate despite the club's 125th year anniversary. And now, Werder Bremen welcome the team this Saturday, 1 September 2012 at 3:30 p.m. for the North Derby.

Seeler has rarely been so worried as now, worried about "his" club, Hamburg. "What I saw against Nuremberg was even worse than last season," said Seeler. What he saw was a 1-0 defeat at home against Nuremberg, who had not won in Hamburg in 20 years. It was finally time again to kick off the new 2012-13 season. And it really didn't surprise anyone as many experts predicted that Hamburg would go through a very difficult season.

Marko Marin (right) scored in the last showdown between these teams in February, securing a 3-1 victory for Werder in Hamburg.

The season started with good preparations despite the departure of main players such as Paolo Guerrero, Mladen Petric, Gökhan Töre and David Jarolim. But then came the embarrassing first round exit in the German DFB Cup as Hamburg lost 4-2 to third division side Karlsruhe. In essence, Hamburg started just like Werder Bremen. The Green-Whites also were embarrassed by a third division side - losing 4-2 in extra time to Preußen Münster - and then lost their first league match (2-1 in Dortmund). But there is not the end-of-the-world mood along the Weser. Trend upwards: visible. Moods: good.

But Hamburg are not the only team staring at a poor start to the season. Werder head coach Thomas Schaaf however is really looking forward to the match. "There were always interesting matches against Hamburg, in which both teams give everything they had. I expect that this time as well," said Schaaf. Many people are expecting newcomers Milan Badelj (Dinamo Zagreb) and Petr Jiracek (VfL Wolfsburg) in Hamburg's starting line-up. "Neither are no-names," said a well-prepared Schaaf. But the coach wants to have the focus on his team. "We are concentrating first off on our task at hand. We want to accomplish that as well as possible."